NMRA NATIONAL CONVENTION BIRMINGHAM 2022

It is with a heavy heart that we advise that we can no longer run the NMRA National Convention in Birmingham UK in 2022.

Birmingham City bid successfully to host the Commonwealth Games (similar in scope to the Olympics but for British Commonwealth nations only) in the Summer of 2022 after Durban, South Africa withdrew as host city. This occurred sometime after our own bid to host the NMRA National Convention was successful. As a consequence of that we moved our dates back two weeks to accommodate. Now, as a consequence of the Olympic Games being postponed one year into 2021 due to COVID-19, and the World Athletics Games in Eugene Oregon being postponed one year to the early Summer of 2022, along with the European Athletics Championships in Germany, the Commonwealth Games are now beginning to hold venues and accommodation across the beginning of our convention week. It is possible that the Commonwealth Games dates might change officially. This of itself will put a strain on booking accommodation and meeting rooms. and will likely impact the prices to be charged.

Furthermore, our train show location, which is scheduled to play host to a number of indoor sports during the Commonwealth Games, has now confirmed that they cannot guarantee that the venue will be back in a useable condition following the Games, in time for the Convention to run at all in the summer. The National Convention needs to be in the Summer for a number of reasons ranging from availability of accommodation in a city location, to traffic conditions and heritage railways timetables which are geared to the holiday periods. There is also the added concern that travel, particularly international air travel, and hotel availability might not have returned to its pre-COVID-19 levels putting extra strain on our planning.

We apologise to all those who we know were either looking forward to participating as exhibitors or convention attendees and who were planning trips to the UK around the Convention.